Abstract

To investigate the effect of various strength of jute agro textiles (gram per square meter or GSM) on yield and thermal use efficiencies of broccoli and potato, a field experiment was conducted at the Regional Research Station, New Alluvial Zone, Nadia, West Bengal from November, 2016 to February, 2017. Five treatments viz., T1–800 GSM, T2 –600 GSM, T3–400 GSM, T4–200 GSM jute agro textiles (JAT) and T5–Control were used for the experiment in a randomized block design. Accumulated thermal indices viz., Growing degree days (GDD) or Heat unit (HU), Heliothermal units (HTU) and Photothermal units (PTU) and their efficiencies HUE, HTUE and PTUE, respectively, were computed. Crop yield as well as thermal and radiation use efficiencies increased for each treatment but T1 showed highest yield and thermal use efficiencies for both the crops (HUE: 2.091 g/m2/day°C; HTUE: 0.320 g/m2/°C h; PTUE: 0.194 g/m2/°C h for broccoli and HUE: 10.772 g/m2/day°C; HTUE: 1.674 g/m2/°C h; PTUE: 0.987 g/m2/°C hfor potato). Results revealed that various strength of JAT greatly influence thermal accumulation and utilization in broccoli and potato.